At this moment, a sectarian divide is proliferating in a dangerous manner, and the “doctrine of responsibility of governments” to protect civilians is completely marginalized and, in certain instances, has been voided by the ongoing proliferation of terrorist groups whose ruthlessness is so alien to Arab and Islamic tradition and culture.
The growing disappointment, and at times disillusionment — given the promise of the Arab Spring, with the prospect of Palestinians having a sovereign and independent state with Jerusalem as its capital not forthcoming as promised, with the growing marginality of the Arab League and divisive politics in Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and the current dangers of a sectarian civil war emerging in Iraq — and all the complexity, divisiveness, popular frustration, and flaws in the Arab situation and the growing disposition on the part of many Arab intelligentsia to give up on Arab nationalism have rendered disillusionment the prevailing sentiment, and resignation from hope the definition of “realism.”